LOGINMERRY CHRISTMAS šš¤
I've been staring at this screen trying to figure out how to say what I want to say without sounding like a Hallmark card lol... but here goes.
Thank you.
Like genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Do you know what it feels like to be a small author? It feels like shouting into the void and hoping someone hears you. It feels like putting pieces of your soul into a story and wondering if anyone will care. It feels like refreshing your stats at 3am just to see if one more person clicked.
And then you showed up.
You clicked. You read. You stayed. You voted. You commented. You added my book to your library like it mattered.
And to me? That's everything.
That's you saying "I see you and I pick you." Out of all the books on this app, you picked mine. Do you know how insane that is? How grateful I am?
So here's my Christmas wish... if this book has made you feel something, anything... would you leave me a review? š„ŗš
It doesn't have to be perfect. Just real. Just you and your thoughts and your words. Tell me what you loved, what you hated, what made you scream into your pillow lol. I want to hear it all.
Reviews are how other readers find me. But more than that... hearing from you reminds me why I do this.
Merry Christmas, loves. You're making my dreams come true and you don't even know it š¤
ā Remi š¤
EMBERāS POVāAnd none of that matters if you go back in there, set the room on fucking fire, pass out, bleed from your eye again, or, I donāt know, die.āāI am not planning to die.āāNobody ever plans it, Ember. That is why death remains such an inconvenience.āāIām serious.āāSo am I.āI grab her arm and make her stop; this is the first thing all morning that feels like something I can actually do, instead of another question I have to carry around until it eats me alive.āWe cannot save Marjorie with what I saw in Haleās room. Hale looking old proves nothing. For all the Council knows, she has some horrible illness, and Hale is such a good sweet-talker she could probably stand beside seven bodies and convince everyone she was there to arrange the flowers. The journal proves nothing if nobody else can read it. I can tell Knox every word, and I know heāll believe me, but the Council doesnāt have to.ā I tighten my hand around Queenieās arm. āTo them, Iām the Kingās new lover trying to
EMBERāS POVQueenie slows beside me. āWhat does that even mean?āāThatās the question, isnāt it? What failed?ā I rub at my forehead. āWhat could have failed because Celeste died? Why did her death affect anything Hale was doing? And she dies on the night of Greenvale, and Greenvale sits right there in Haleās journal, too. What the hell could have been that important to Hale all those years ago? Did she know something about that night? About Knox? About the sixty-three? Or did whatever this was only start mattering after Celeste died?āQueenie takes a few more steps, then shakes her head.āBut none of that proves Celeste was part of Haleās big scheme. She could have been another victim. Hale could have been using her, studying something about her, doing something around her without Celeste knowing a damn thing.āāI know, and I hate that youāre right.ā The frustration under my skin is getting worse. āBecause I feel like Iām close to something. So close I can almost taste the foul thing,
EMBERāS POVQueenieās smile is gone now. She walks beside me in silence for a few seconds, rubbing the sore spot at the back of her head again, but this time she looks distracted rather than annoyed.āMaybe because there is nothing a doctor can do. If she really has to take something from other people to keep herself functioning, then maybe the maids were the treatment.ā Her mouth tightens. āShe can heal everybody else because everybody else gets sick in ways she understands. Whatever is happening to her might be something completely different.āI look at her, and the unease that has been crawling under my skin suddenly sharpens.āSomething that isnāt natural.āQueenie slows with me.For a second, neither of us says anything, because saying it aloud makes the whole thing worse.Hale has spent years surrounded by herbs, healers, money and every resource Knox could possibly give her, yet somewhere along the way the answer she settled on was seven living women.Queenieās voice is quieter
EMBERāS POVI canāt breathe.Iām standing in the corridor with my back against the wall, my thumb bleeding and my chest so tight that every breath feels too small.The Caelora bitch.Hale said it so easily. Like the words were already familiar to her. Like she had known exactly what I was long before I ever learned the name myself.My stomach drops.She knows what Caelora is.She knows what I am.And she has known for a very long time.āEmber!āQueenie comes round the corner at a run, white to the lips.āI couldnāt stop her, Iām so sorry, I couldnāt-ā Sheās got hold of both my arms. āAre you alright? Did she touch you? Ember, are you-āāHow did she get past you?āāShe ran!ā Queenieās shaking. āThe girl said sheād been in with Rayana and it was going fine, and then Rayana started coming round. Hale stood up and told everyone to get out because she needed a minute with her, so they did. About a minute later, she came flying out of that room and took off down the corridor, Ember. I mean,
EMBERāS POVHer voice makes the sight of her even more disturbing. It is still Haleās usual calm, level voice, except now it is coming from a face that looks decades older than the one I saw downstairs.āHaleāāāWhat are you doing in my room!ā Her eyes drop to my hands, and her whole expression changes. āPut that down!āāWhat the fuck happened to you?āāPut it down!āShe crosses the room so quickly that I barely have time to pull the book back.She tears it out of my hands hard enough to scrape the skin from my thumb, then clutches it against her chest with both arms. By the time she steps away from me, she is breathing hard.āGet out of my room!ā she shouts. āGet out! Get out!āāHale, look at yourself-āāDonāt you dare!āāLook at your hands!āāGet out!āShe screams it, and the sound tears straight out of her chest.In weeks, I have never heard Hale raise her voice above that soft, controlled murmur of hers, and now she is standing in front of me shrieking, both arms locked around the
EMBERāS POVQueenie slips inside before I can even turn around.āEmber, you need to be quickāāāLook at this!āāWhat?āāLook!ā Iām pointing at the page with my whole hand flat. āThatās my name! Sheās got my name circled, and sheās written special child, and she knows about Caelora, and sheās asking whether her grandmotherās alive, and here, look, this is the tunnels, sheās drawn the service tunnels, all of them, sheās drawn the one where I found-āQueenie is staring at me now, her eyes shifting from the book to my face and back again, her brows pulling together in confusion.āEmber,ā she says carefully. āWhat am I looking at?āāThe book!āāItās blank.āFor a second, I can only stare at her.āItās not blank.āāEmber, it is.ā Queenie takes the book from me and turns it toward herself, frowning as she looks over the page. Then she flips to the next one, and the next, her confusion slowly giving way to something much more uneasy. āThereās nothing here. These pages are completely blank.āā







